Pubdate: Thu, 24 Nov 2011
Source: Eugene Weekly (OR)
Copyright: 2011 Eugene Weekly
Contact:  http://www.eugeneweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/136
Author: Dante Zuniga-West

THIS BUD'S FOR WHO?

Feds Smoke the Medical Marijuana Industry

Medical marijuana users seeking to obtain their medicine in Oregon 
and throughout the country may soon find themselves asking the loaded 
question -- Yo Obama, where's the weed at?

Maybe you feel you have the right to experiment with your own 
consciousness. Perhaps you are one to promote the legalization of all 
illicit substances. Or it might be the case that you identify with 
the late R&B singer Nate Dogg, who once sang, "Hey ey ey ey, smoke 
weed everyday," based on the fact that you enjoy (as he did) the 
recreational use of cannabis.

That's your own damn business and has nothing to do with the 
medicinal purposes of the plant. This article is not the flag-waving 
counterculture anti-prohibitionist hotbox you are looking to occupy. 
Though compelling arguments exist on behalf of marijuana and Peter 
Tosh's iconic statement "Legalize it," the year 2011 has brought to 
bear a new series of issues for "legal" medicinal usage of the substance.

A concentrated effort to stamp out marijuana and the medical 
marijuana industry under the Obama administration has been sweeping 
the country this entire past year. Busts yielding significant and 
less than significant hauls of marijuana are happening up and down 
the coast at an intensified rate. But more precisely, the medical 
marijuana industry and its proponents are being targeted on a national scale.

The effect of this has made its way from Washington, D.C., all the 
way to the West Coast and to Eugene. Sept. 22, Oregon State Police 
arrested three men and seized 300 plants from two separate 
residences, in a raid that was part of an ongoing investigation by 
the Lane County Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team.

Up in the Club

It's estimated that legal marijuana is a $10 billion to $100 billion 
industry in the U.S. (the exact figure is unknown). Lane County is 
home to more than 5,000 card-carrying medical marijuana patients. 
Curtis Shimmin, owner of Kannabosm says he sees a demand for services 
such as that provided by Kannabosm.

"There is an incredible need for safe access to marijuana," Shimmin 
says, "We are the only club here that does what we do."

For a monthly membership fee of $20, members of Kannabosm (all of 
whom must be card-carrying medical marijuana patients) receive access 
to their medication. The club also offers educational seminars on the 
medicinal properties of marijuana.

Kannabosm acts as a nexus connecting licensed growers and medical 
marijuana patients. Growers bring their harvest to the club and give 
permission to Kannbosm for patients to access it. A reimbursement fee 
is collected for the grower to cover the cost of production, though not labor.

Another service provided is a screening of the cannabis brought to 
the club, so as to ensure the herb is clean -- meaning not laced with 
chemicals or polluted with pesticides.

"The counterculture image of marijuana doesn't help this cause at 
all," Shimmin says. "The goal is to provide safe access to medical 
marijuana, for medical marijuana patients. That's the battle, and 
obviously I'm willing to take the risk."

That risk is nothing short of federal prosecution.

"In the eyes of the law right now, what we are doing is illegal, but 
there is nothing that addresses whether or not we can do what we are 
doing," Shimmin explains. "The law says you can use medical marijuana 
if you have a card, but then where do you get it?"

Shimmin says that without his club's service, medical marijuana 
patients throughout Lane County would have no alternative but to buy 
weed on the black market or grow it themselves. "Ninety-nine percent 
of our clients are over the age of 60, and they're not interested nor 
do they have the space or ability to grow for themselves," he adds. 
"We have several stage-four cancer patients that practically crawl in 
here to get their meds."

Vaporizing the Industry

More so than clubs and dispensaries, it appears that wiping out 
marijuana grow operations has become a top priority to the Department 
of Justice this year. Detectives from the Spokane Sheriff's office on 
Nov. 2 conducted a raid that turned up approximately 8 pounds of 
harvested marijuana, 695 marijuana plants and 500 additional recently 
harvested marijuana trimmings.

In Oregon's northeastern Wallowa County, police and the Oregon Army 
National Guard seized and destroyed more than 91,000 marijuana plants 
in what is considered the biggest outdoor grow operation ever 
discovered in the state.

Also in Oregon, Nov. 18, near milepost 281, Oregon State Police 
stopped a California man headed northbound on Interstate 5 and seized 
4 pounds of weed and 32 pounds of THC candy. Later that same day, a 
Salt Lake City man was pulled over and 2 pounds of marijuana were 
seized from his vehicle. Both drivers were arrested and jailed.

Alongside the big busts targeting growers, strategic blows to the 
infrastructure of medical marijuana are being meted out by the feds, 
particularly in California. One of the most high-profile of the 
aggressive nationwide measures enacted against the medical marijuana 
industry was the Oct. 7 announcement by four California U.S. 
attorneys declaring a crackdown that involved a multitude of 
enforcements against medical marijuana producers, distributors and 
the landlords leasing property to dispensaries.

If the aggressive crackdown carries over into Oregon, including 
threats such as the prosecution of newspapers and other media outlets 
that run advertisements for medical marijuana -- things could get 
even sticky-ickier.

There is a saying that goes "what happens in California happens in 
Oregon a year later," and if there is any truth to this 
colloquialism, it's reasonable to assume Oregon is next in line on 
the fed's medical marijuana hit list. Federal attention to Oregon's 
medical marijuana issue actually came a bit earlier than Cali's, 
though the assault has yet to be as focused.

Former U.S. district attorney for Oregon Dwight Holton sent a letter 
June 3 this year to all of Oregon's medical marijuana clubs urging 
them to "cease any distribution of marijuana in violation of federal 
law." The letter, which Kannabosm owner Curtis Shimmin received just 
four weeks after opening his doors, stated that the Department of 
Justice, along with district attorneys throughout Oregon, will 
"enforce federal law vigorously against individuals and organizations 
that participate in unlawful manufacture" or "distribution of marijuana."

Holton's warning, though it doesn't approach the severity of the 
measures being taken in California, is yet another sign of the Obama 
administration's nationwide blitz on the medical marijuana industry.

Higher Forms of Health Care

Though the current national push to curtail or quash the medical 
marijuana industry made growers jumpy about speaking to a reporter, a 
look into the caretaker's role in the process allows for yet another 
side of the story to be heard.

Amber Younce, a nurse who works with advanced HIV patients at Our 
House of Portland, a center that provides health care, housing and 
other services for low-income people living with advanced HIV/AIDS, 
has encountered a significant number of medical marijuana patients.

Medical marijuana "has been incredibly important to AIDS patients 
trying to keep weight on and stay nourished," Younce says. "Other 
appetite stimulants don't work as well."

Younce also sees medical marijuana used to counteract negative side 
effects of other medications taken by her patients. Well aware of the 
disconnect between state and federal law concerning medical 
marijuana, Younce addresses the recent government push. "It's 
unfortunate there needs to be some new crackdown," she says. "It'd be 
great if the feds and the state could actually negotiate with each 
other, instead of putting law-abiding citizens at risk of criminal charges."

A negotiation of this sort would seem to be in the best interest of 
the feds, the states, law enforcement and the citizens, but the Obama 
administration has yet to address the issue head on. In fact, that 
the raids on growers and dispensaries have increased under Obama's 
presidency (particularly in California) appears to signal an opposite 
trend. If you are a medical marijuana patient, it sure looks like 
Obama is coming for your ganja. It's harvest season, but right now 
the only thing the DOJ wants you to smoke is your Thanksgiving turkey.

The Obama administration did seek to clarify the controversial "Odgen 
Memo," written in 2009 by Deputy U.S. Attorney General David Odgen, 
which originally stated that the federal government wouldn't mess 
with businesses operating in compliance with state laws regarding 
medical marijuana. And the new memo gives a nod to patients such as 
those Younce takes care of, stating that government resources will 
not be used to prosecute cancer patients or other terminally ill 
individuals who use marijuana in accordance with state law. Anyone 
else involved in the business of selling, growing or dispensing 
marijuana however, is operating in violation of the Controlled Substance Act.

Meaning, if you are a terminally ill medical marijuana patient, you 
can spark it up and burn one down, but good luck in the 
not-so-distant future grabbing your greenery from anywhere other than 
your friendly neighborhood dealer.

Is marijuana a hell of a drug? Apparently. Are people abusing both 
the substance as well as the ability to get their hands on a card? 
Yes. But as Younce, who administers a smorgasbord of prescription 
drugs in her line of work, points out: "I'm not sure why we care that 
people are abusing it. People abuse every prescription drug there is."

It remains unclear exactly why this push from the federal government 
is occurring now, at a time when Obama's ratings aren't so hot. Some 
activists speculate the aggressive measures against the medical 
marijuana industry are the result of pressure from law enforcement.

Though Oregon has yet to see the same level of smack down on medical 
marijuana as its neighbor to the south, there is no reason to believe 
that the state will avoid the same federal green-sweep increase 
within its borders. One thing is for certain: For now, weed and 
trouble still go together like bongs and water.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom